Different Reflection
by Jadeica
Summary: The fight for Coraline was over, yet anyone but Wybie wouldn't believe her. Whilst Coraline's out fighting an evil hand, Charlie Jones has a strange dream of his own. Charlie gets to meet his Other. R&R?


AN: I reccomend listening to 'Reunion' from the Coraline OST when listening to this. I was.

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Charlie Jones sat silently in his bed, his mind taking laps as it tried to get over the two strange occurrences that had happened that day. The first had been that, whilst shopping he could have sworn that they had lost a few hours of time. Shopping didn't take four hours, did it? Yet they had come home later than expected… Even weirder was that when they arrived at the house, their daughter bounced forward to hug them (rather tightly, might he add) and babble on about kidnappings and snow and those doppelgangers she kept mentioning, the ones with button eyes. She had had nightmares before, but getting so into them was something that had never happened before, alas it had been worrying the parents more than it should have. 'She's probably just getting used to a new place'. With a click of the light and a kiss on the cheek of his already sleeping wife, he lay down and positioned himself for sleep. Where he ended up however…

The world around him was entirely white: no floor, no ceiling, no walls. Was he dreaming? He must have been. And if this was a dream then it wouldn't have hurt to wander about… He walked on forwards for a little while until he finally saw a figure walking up ahead- walking from the opposite direction towards _him_. Perhaps what he was seeing was a mirror? The man opposite looked an awful lot like him, but somehow different. As they moved closer, he inspected him more thoroughly. His hair for one was tidier than his own, as was the lack of stubble on his chin. He wore a red and black dressing gown with a dotted pattern and- orange monkey slippers? Was this the button eyed other-him that Coraline had spoke of only a day or two ago? His gaze darted straight to the eyes, but only to be spot a pair of marvellous green eyes that shone like emeralds in the white surroundings. Charlie didn't know how they shone actually, since there was no source of light in this strange place, just a white that was not too light and not too dark… were they shining on their own? The other smiled warmly at him and Charlie replied with a fixed, amazed gaze.

Ten seconds passed and they were both directly in front of each other. Charlie really couldn't believe what he was seeing; he couldn't believe how much like him this other man was. This had to be a dream. Coraline's words must have been going through his head and that's why he was imagining this, that had to be it…

"Hey there." The other man spoke first, giving a little semi circle wave, "you're her real father, aren't you?" It sounded just like himself- well, how he sounded on video or a recording (although better, since no-one ever liked how they sounded on recording). He didn't know whether he should respond to this new counterpart or whether he should run and freak out- but where would he run to? Being freaked out however, this had already happened- and wait- he knew Coraline? The other began to question him again, "Did she make her way back?"

"Back from where?" He hadn't even thought about what he was saying, but instead his curiosity kicked in and he acted upon reflex thinking. "She's only been in the- Oh. No no no…" It just kicked in that the dad in the orange monkey slippers was here and the world that Coraline had spoke about could possibly be true. "This is a joke, right?" He was a lot more open-minded to the concepts at hand than Mel was, but even he found impossible... plus he didn't want to think that she had really been in danger and the people that she trusted the most hadn't listened. The other replied with a large smile; Coraline had made it, she had beaten the Beldam.

"You have a fantastic daughter Mr Jones; she's as brave as a lion and as sharp as a needle! You should be proud of her." He knew that he was, but what the man was saying brought out things that he had never really thought of: Yes, he loved his daughter and yes, she was smart… but could it really be that he had never seen that eccentricity that Coraline had as 'brave' and 'sharp'? He thought then that some children wouldn't explore because of the 'monsters' that they were so scared about may attack them. Coraline was only ten and she would happily go near the edges of cliffs just so she could see what it was like down below. Maybe he should have thought about this before… Silence overtook the two and made the already barren land seem worse.

"If you're the other-me that Coraline told us about, then why aren't you- y'know-" he couldn't say dead, he thought that it might offend the other, "and she said you had buttons for eyes?" Shining black buttons stitched on in place of their eyes… he was curious as to what happened to them.

The Other Father smiled and twice tapped a finger at his left temple. "The world preserved me. You see, when I helped out Coraline, Mother was weak and was losing power over her world, so when it gave away around me, it somehow created another world. When I was sucked in, the buttons fell off; think it might've been that she's not around anymore. This place is giving me life now." The other knew that he still didn't have a soul, but he most certainly had something that his ex-wife did not: love and kindness; that was all he needed to make his way in his opinion.

"Thanks- for helping her that is. If what you're saying is true, it's nice to think that she had some help there." He felt that his other-self wasn't so different from him- perhaps Coraline didn't really mind his personality after-all? "But what are you gonna do now? There's nothing here." He imagined that only to be torture, living in a world without anyone else.

"If you keep on walking for another half-a-mile-" he looked around him and faced Charlie once more with a confused smile, "that way? Whoops, lost the direction. I'll find it soon. There's a little door that leads to someplace in your world and I wonder if I can make something fantastic? I can do what Mother never did and make our children happy for real." A smile hit the lips of both of them; the concept that the other was thinking was something so brilliant.

"Good luck with that."

The Other Father nodded his thanks and- quite suddenly- his lips dropped into a small sad smile. "Look after her. I love her just as much as you do." In that last moment the man's emerald eyes seemed to sparkle; they gave off more emotion than Charlie even thought possible.

He awoke rather suddenly in his bed, darting upwards to find Mel standing beside their bed in her pyjamas, a worried look plastered across her face. "Charlie, are you alright?"

His look however, it was graced by a smile quite close to one he knew quite recently... "Mel, I've just had the weirdest dream." Deep down, in a place where common sense doesn't exist, he knew that it was real.

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**AUTHORS NOTES**

A sort-of sequel to 'His Discoveries, His Choices'. Think of it as a sort of 'How the Otherworld works' type of fic too. Perhaps the Other Mother was a creation that was sucked in to her own world?

There's a little nudge to WybourneObsessed in this too. The whole 'emerald green eyes' is a little homage to her fanfic 'Remembrance.'(It's been out for less than a day and it's had homage. Congratulations on a record.) I really liked the idea that his eyes would be the main difference.

Also, how the Other Father's there? Well there's some connection to that world through dreams I figure, since the Other Mother can put Coraline back there at night. I also like thinking that there might be a link in there between the other and their counterpart (a nudge to BeyondxHatred's 'Patchwork' there.) Think of it as a similar connection between lives and minds linking or something. IDK WHAT?

Apologies for the most likely fail grammar. Even when I proof-read I never no where to put things. (If anyone ever fancies beta-reading my Coraline fics, feel free. It'll be a rare job, since I don't write much.) Seriously, Word's even giving me 'Fragment (consider revising)' on the ANs.

Anyhow, thank you for reading! I'd love to know what you think, since I really don't write much and it means a lot to me, whether you love it or hate it.


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